Morrigan Aensland
Morrigan Aensland is a succubus from Darkstalkers. She is voiced by Yayoi Jinguji. Morrigan is very vain, and lives for little more than the excitement of battle, although her endings in the games as well as various media show that Morrigan slowly takes up more of her responsibility seriously. She appears as a beautiful woman with long, light green hair, and bat-like wings on her back and the sides of her head. She is a versatile fighter, having a wide range of physical and magical attacks. Although Demitri would seem to fill the spot, it is often suggested and implied that Morrigan is the main character of the Darkstalkers series, due to her importance in the overall story as well as her many appearances outside of her own game series. She may even be considered the protagonist or something of an anti-hero, since despite her demonic appearance and nature, she is not evil. Story thumb|260px|left|Ending from [[-03-0005Darkstalkers 3]] The succubus are one of many races living in the Makai realm and a portion of them reside within the Aensland clan. Morrigan was born into this particular group and Belial, one of the rulers of the Makai, took her as his adopted daughter and heiress to his throne as the head of House Aensland and extension, as the ruler of Makai. He saw great potential in her, even to the point that she would become an S-class darkstalker. This revelation increased the tensions House Aensland was already dealing with from the other noble houses. Belial also foresaw the dangers of the powers residing in Morrigan's body. If she could not properly control these powers, their energies would consume her body and Makai would also suffer catastrophic damage in the aftermath. To counter this event from unfolding, he sealed away part of her power, one-third in himself to be returned upon his death, and one-third in a pocket dimension, which eventually became a being of its own, a succubus named Lilith. When the time was right, Belial would return these energies to Morrigan. By then, she would know how to handle her abilities. Without knowing this, Morrigan grew up. Due to her status, she was tended after by two lesser demons named Lucien and Mudo. If they were to fail in caring for her in anyway, they would mostly likely suffer the wrath of Belial. She found her life in the Aensland castle dull, and so she would visit the human world secretly many times to look for some kind of entertainment. She found the taste of human souls and dreams to be quite enjoyable. She could never find this sort of nourishment anywhere in Makai and fed off of it as much as she could. Initially, there were so many dreams across the realm that even Morrigan herself could not keep up with them all. But eventually she only became lucky enough to enjoy a good dream every ten years. The succubus race itself also went into decline. However, Morrigan did not care. She felt no connection with her race. Searching for fun mattered to her more than anything else. However, even these journeys into the human world would have their occasional pangs of boredom and Morrigan began to feel desensitized. One night, she was drawn to a strange power (later identified as Pyron) and ventured into the human world once again. She most likely encountered him in battle but the ultimate victory went to Demitri Maximoff, her father's sworn enemy. She returned to the demon world and 16 years later, Belial passed away. She became the next successor to the throne of the Aensland family. Although she is rightfully the ruler of Makai, she keeps avoiding her responsibilities and continues her life as before. Demitri returned to Makai shortly after learning of Belial's death and offered a match to Morrigan to prove who should rule Makai. She initially ignored his requests but eventually agreed to the fight. But before this could happen, Jedah created the Majigen. Morrigan and her castle were pulled into Jedah's dimension. Sensing Lilith, Morrigan sets off hoping to find some sort of enjoyment. She battles Lilith and comes out on top as victor. However, when Morrigan feels Lilith's sadness, she allows Lilith's spirit to combine with her own. Her fate after this is not known. Powers and Abilities Morrigan is one of the strongest beings in the Darkstalkers universe. In addition to traditional punches and kicks, she can reshape her wings into spikes, tentacles, and blades when attacking her enemies, as well as using them to shield herself from enemy attacks. She can also channel her own ki energy into her attacks, making them much stronger. Her wings can also separate from her, and form into a cloud of bats. During her dashing manuevers, her wings can boost like a rocket booster and give off visible thrust. She can increase this thrust by expelling a large amount of ki during her Valkyrie Turn and rebound her opponent by forming her wings into a drill. Her hair can also be used as a weapon, as seen in her basic punch. She is best known for her Soul Fist, a blast of ki from her firsts. If she uses it with regular power, it will appear as a large glowing yellow bat but if used with more power in an EX move, it will appear as a beam with a ghostly skull at the apex. She can also create a temporary doppelganger in her Darkness Illusion spell who will mimic her movements and attacks. In her Finishing Shower move, her wings form cannon-like protrusions and expel multiple ki blasts. She can also change her costume instantly into whatever she desires at the moment. When doing this, she will always hide her wings. Presumably, this is for when she travels into the human world to avoid attention. Being a succubus, she can draw out the life force of a human (unknown if it is through sex like traditional succubi or through some other means) and can also feed on dreams. She may also be the only Darkstalker that is capable of crossing into the human dimension without the use of the "Gate", simply relying on her own translocation ability. It's implied that if she were to combine with Lilith, her powers would be much stronger. While this has not been seen in the Darkstalkers games, this incarnation has appeared in the Vs. series. In this form, some of Morrigan's attacks look different and she's also much faster (though this could also be due to the game's engine). Her Finish Shower attack is replaced with the Soul Eraser, where her wings form a giant laser cannon and she also gains the Silhoutte Blade, where she creates multiple Lilith clones that all use Lilith's Shining Blade attack. Other Appearances * Capcom vs. SNK * Capcom vs. SNK 2 * Marvel vs. Capcom - Also includes an alternate "Lilith-style" Morrigan as a secret character. * Marvel vs. Capcom 2 * Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds * Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo * Super Gem Fighter: Mini Mix * Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars She is also featured as a playable character in non-Capcom games such as the Sega Dreamcast port of Psikyo's arcade shooter Gunbird 2 (published by Capcom), Cross Edge, Namco x Capcom (both of which published by Namco), Match of the Millennium: SNK vs. Capcom, and the Card Fighters Clash series (published by SNK). A portrait of Morrigan can be seen in Capcom Fighting Evolution, placed on a wall in the Underworld stage. Morrigan's likeness appears in the game We Love Golf! as an unlockable outfit for Stephanie. Comic In the UDON Comics version of Darkstalkers, Morrigan is a brash 300-year-old succubus who wants nothing more than to visit the human world and have a good time, often at the expense of the men she seduces, and completely ignores her duty as future ruler of the Makai Realm; this annoys her father, Belial, and gets her two servants, Lucien and Mudo into heaps of trouble. Eventually she hears of Demitri's restoration, and goes to her father to warn him, only to find that he is in no position to fight. For the first time, she takes on the responsibility that she has often put aside, and returns to the human world to fight Demitri, and prove herself worthy of the Makai Realm and the power that Belial sealed away many years ago. Gallery Image:DarkstalkersNWMorrigan.png|''Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors'' by Bengus Image:MorriganPortrait.png|''Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors'' Image:MorriganConcept.png|''Concept Art'' Image:NWDRevengeMorrigan.png|''Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge'' Image:MarCapMorrigan.png|''Marvel vs. Capcom'' Image:SPFIITurboMorrigan.png|''Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo'' Image:Darkstalkers3Morrigan.png|''Darkstalkers 3'' Image:MorriganSketch.png|''Darkstalkers 3'' Image:PocketMorrigan.png|''Super Gem Fighter: Mini Mix'' by Edayan Image:MarCap2Morrigan.png|''Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes'' Image:MarCap2MorriganB.png|''Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes'' Image:Morrigan_Aensland.jpg|Morrigan in Capcom vs SNK 2 (Capcom groove) Image:DarkstalkersCTMorrigan.png|''Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower'' Image:SNKCapCardFighters2Morrigan.png|''SNK vs. Capcom Card Fighters 2'' Image:NamCapMorrigan.png|''Namco x Capcom'' Image:UDONMorrigan.png|UDON Comics Image:TatsuCapMorrigan.png|''Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars'' Image:TatsuCapMorrigan2.png|''Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars'' Image:MarCap3Morrigan.png|Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds Image:Morrigan&QBee.png|Art by Hyung Tae Kim Image:LauMorrigan.png|Art by Stan Lau Image:WarrenMorrigan&Lilith.png|Art by Emily Warren Category:Darkstalkers Characters Category:Characters